Danny McDonald begins his first season on Head Coach Jake Dickert’s staff, serving as the Cougar’s defensive quality control assistant. McDonald is no stranger to Cougar Football, having played wide receiver at WSU from 2011-12.
McDonald arrives in Pullman having spent the past two seasons as a defensive analyst at Auburn, working under current Cougar defensive coordinator Jeff Schmedding.
Prior to Auburn, McDonald spent the 2020 campaign as defensive assistant at Boise State, also working on the staff under Schmedding, who was the Broncos’ defensive coordinator. Boise State went 5-2 that season, reaching the Mountain West Conference Championship game.
McDonald spent the 2018-19 seasons in a quality control role at Eastern Washington, as the Eagles went a combined 19-8 and reached the 2018 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game.
Prior to arriving in Cheney, McDonald spent two seasons (2016-17) at West Texas A&M, starting as an outside receivers coach in 2016 before spending 2017 as a defensive graduate assistant.
In 2015, he was at East Los Angeles College in Los Angeles, Calif., working with wide receivers and serving as special teams coordinator. There, McDonald helped lead ELAC special teams to be the tenth-ranked unit, statistically, out of 70 junior college teams in the state and had one of his wide receivers earn all-conference honors. McDonald spent the two years previous as a volunteer assistant at Washington State University, assisting wide receivers coaches Dennis Simmons and David Yost.
McDonald played wide receiver in college at Washington State University (2011-12) for Mike Leach after playing quarterback at University of Puget Sound.
McDonald graduated with a degree in accounting at Washington State.
